Our annual Cookie Exchange party required me to whip up 3 dozen cookies and I couldn’t decide between these two designs, so I ended up making both. Each is a sugar cookie, made from a store-bought mix and each had vanilla flavored frosting. The rest was embellishment and basic cake decorating touches!

MELTED SNOWMAN – SUGAR COOKIE
Sugar cookies baked according to mix directions. No cookie cutter needed here, as I just rolled the dough out and freehanded a melted snowman shape and cut with a butter knife. After the cookies were out of the oven and cooled, I frosted each with white frosting and decorated the cookies using the following ingredients:Snowman head – malt ball (from Georgia Nut Company outlet store) Could also use a large gum ball or white marzipan ball.Carrot nose – Gummy Lifesaver candy (orange) cut into a wedgeEyes – Fudge frosting painted on with a small paintbrushButtons – Mini morsels by NestleBranch arms – Fudge frosting piped on in shape of branches (no fancy cake decorating kit needed – just use a plastic baggie and cut a tiny hole in the corner in place of a pastry bag)

PUMPKIN PIE WITH PECAN CRUST – SUGAR COOKIE
Buy sugar cookie mix and make dough following directions on the package. Roll out dough. No need for a cookie cutter, just freehand a wedge-shape (you could use a paper template) and cut cookie shape out using a butter knife. Place on a cookie sheet and bake according to directions on package.

Once cookies are out of the oven and cooled, frost each with pumpkin color frosting. I used white vanilla frosting and some Wilton food coloring (mauve + yellow yielded a nice pumpkin pie color). Give the curved edge a dose of some extra frosting and place a few cut pecan pieces across the edge to give the appearance of a crust.

Top each wedge with a dollop of white frosting so the pie slice looks like it’s topped with whipped cream (I used Pillsbury Easy Frost frosting – shown in picture below – which comes with a built-in swirl cake decorating tip) . The perfect fall-winter dessert for the folks who don’t care for the taste of actual pumpkin pie. This cookie design is also perfect for a Thanksgiving holiday event.